Tag Archives: Buddha

Feeling Lost

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Have you ever felt a bit empty and lost? Like you are unsure of your purpose and how to use your time and energy for the greatest good. It is not often an expectation which arises externally which has the most effect. When the “internal” questioning arises, for me, it feels most distracting. Thoughts surface like; Am I Enough? Can I Trust My Feelings/Intuition? Can I Be Doing More? This is not the first time, nor sadly will it be the last time, I grapple with a lack of focused direction and a satisfaction that my life is moving most purposely. There is no reason to believe that this conundrum is unique for me. In fact, this perplexing challenge is very common. But, how do I/you dig myself/yourself out of this sticky mess?

Consider what may add to this concern… I believe that: Thinking too much can be a problem. Lack of action and movement can increase this dilemma. Physical health and lower energy levels may add to this self questioning. Your personal expectations can get in the way. Expectations that you can control the uncontrollable and difficulty with “allowing” life to happen, adds to this predicament. Lower self esteem which is triggered by a reduced positive production and your personal expectations also cause, or at least contribute to, this circle of stagnation and reduced self-image. For me, tiredness and confusion from life’s stress can also send me into a level of doubt and self-questioning of my “purpose.”

AND, the search for purpose and “meaning” is an ongoing experience which continues to change as life rolls on its merry path. As I grow and change, I will renew my questioning from this new older perspective. It makes life an ever-changing test and an exciting new thrill ride on our Earthly plane. I would not like it to get boring or too predictable… SO, it doesn’t. Even a seemingly mundane life like Buddha’s life as a ferryman, was filled with new travelers and their personal stories (and questions regarding their lives with each one being unique). Again, for me, just the process of getting older is fraught with ever-changing nuances which offer new challenges to learn from and to adapt to. No one said life would be easy except in some fictional account of what life offers. You remember the fiction’s line, “And, they lived happily ever after.” The afterlife is happy but is misconstrued by this old line from storybooks and fictional man made movies. Our ever-changing life is the adventure we have come into this current life to have… (Yes, whether you are conscious of this or not, you came for the “Adventure Travel” experience into our 3 dimensional world with limitations that test our remembering of our deeper Divine Wisdoms.)

We, most of us, enjoy our roller coaster rides through our human lives. There is adventure, excitement, conflict, challenges, despair, survival, Joy in success, fear of failure, etc. The range of possible emotions and the seemingly unknowable nature of our path creates this exciting adventure travel experience. It is what we have come here for… And, if you are like me, you regularly cycle back into pondering the same questions. Am I on the “right” path? Am I of value? Am I following through on MY purpose? We ask these questions because we are human and have awareness. Our larger “sophisticated” brains allow us to question and bring up old memories of fears of future unknowns. We have been down the “wrong” path many times and seek to avoid making the same mistakes.
But, there are no mistakes. There are no failures but there are course corrections in your learning and your life’s path. Answers to all of those stated questions is always the same, “YES.” YOU ARE on the right path, of value, and following your purpose though possibly on a rather circuitous pathway.

Basically, our purpose never changes. However, the way we proceed to act out our lives, and manifest our purpose, can take many turns in the road. We have choices. We have different paths to follow in the maze of life. All the choices seem to have value as we test out wisdom and learnings through our filter of being human (with all the 3 dimensional limitations, we have.)
AND, you are never really Lost. Perhaps not fully conscious and distorted in not being able to see the forest from the trees…

Spoiler alert, Your Purpose…
To be Love. To share Unconditional Love by acting in Service!
Perhaps you think this is way too simple, but…
Too simple does not make this untrue…

With each life experience, we step along our path to find new perspective on what is possible and we test out our “learned” wisdom, or the wisdom we have “remembered” from our soul’s connection to the Divine. Each step is a lifetime of adventure if we see and know the fullest picture of the miracles our lives demonstrates.

And, to come full circle, my doubts regarding my purpose have evaporated with meditation, rest, and another circle turning of our miracle planet on its daily axis. (Honestly, for me writing these thoughts as an act of service to myself and anyone who stumbles upon this blog, allows me to feel I am following through on my current purpose…)

YOU are amazing! You are a Blessing!
Life is filled with Joy though you sometimes have to look deep into the darkness to find it…
You are on your own unique “Hero’s Journey,” discovering and then unravelling the mysteries of your life.
And, remember to look into each person’s eyes until you find the unique perfection of who they really are and what they can share with you from their acquired wisdom. (Even if this is what not to do…)

Oh yes, Do Not Forget… YOU are a Miracle! Thank you for being YOU!

Are You Conscious?

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Are you conscious regarding your soul’s full strength and capacities?

Can our Individualism which separates us from our fellow pilgrims be standing in our way as we attempt to move into Higher Consciousness? Oneness and connectedness are underlining principles of the Higher Realms. Our beyond human 3D existence, Higher Realm Souls, are in conflict with people identifying as “Rugged Individualists.” Our belief that we have “constitutional rights” to be guided by our individual beliefs, at the expense of the the Universal Spirit, run contrary to what I believe is Enlightenment. When we are taught (or adopt the attitude) that we have to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” (whatever that means) people assume that we are in life to get ahead without other people’s support for our own greedy expectations. Sure we have the “self-made men” (sexist concept) in our glorified history but should these selfish figures be our role-models?

Other figures like: Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, and Nelson Mandala may be a few of the more commonly known and revered examples of leaderships with a closer connection to the Divine Spirit. It is my understanding, without having personal relationships with these people, that their model was selfless and above and beyond the “driven” business and political leaders we celebrate these days. Perhaps our culture and world has less well known, and not attention grabbing, leaders who are working to create consciousness at lesser levels in the modern world. And yes, we do have self-made men giving their wealth away to charitable causes like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and many celebrities. But, maybe too few of the greedy 1% wealthy (Self-Made Men) engage in giving as the role models we need as positive examples.

Until we can sincerely respect other souls and be prepared to support the Universal Divine’s theme of oneness and interconnection, we are trapped in our human dramas with its cultural need for separation. To “get ahead” as an individual at the expense of others is the epitome of human selfishness and the necessary lesson for higher consciousness we struggle with too commonly in our world.

This may sound like “sour grapes” thinking to wealth seeking individuals, however, the expression “wealth does not buy you happiness” has truth to it. I grew up in a wealthy Southern California community. Before I left town at the age of 19, my emotional perception was that the newly made wealth seekers were not happy. In fact, they were anxious and self-medicated (alcohol and drugs) to maintain their unhappiness and to deal with their paranoia/fear regarding losing their material possessions. At the time, and still true for me today, I did not fit in with these cultural beliefs and this shallow attempt to appear successful in life… Wealthy people can be happy and conscious but their driven need to pursue wealth and power does NOT translate into their happiness, Joy, or higher spiritual consciousness, easily.

Buying your way into heaven is a myth. Jumping to the head of the line does not get you into heaven easier or sooner. Cutting corners by buying people off does not earn you respect or truly loyal relationships. Cultures and societies which honor and allow corruption as a means of getting ahead are morally bankrupt and weaken their longevity. But, these are all my “Judgements” regarding corruption because I know that there are important lessons, if only what not to do, for the human dramas our Earthly existence thrives upon. In the telling of the story regarding Buddha, he started life as wealthy and privileged but renounced this life style to gain his consciousness through hardships and a devout life. In my understanding of this story, Buddha gave up on on the punishing rigors of devout spiritual life for a more normal meditation practice. He found happiness and life satisfaction in the “simple” life as a man who ferries people across a river. This finally lead him to his Enlightenment. Is this a myth to keep less fortunate people from rebelling against the 1%? Or, do the “trappings” of wealth and privilege distract the consciousness seeker from Divine Consciousness?
A great question… YOU need to seek the answer for yourself. It is your lesson.

For me, a more simple life has been helpful. Dealing with shallowness and envy has been a part of my challenge. Consciously chasing wealth and power has not been my path. And, humility has been a striving in my life… We are not as special as we want to think we are in our human lives. But, we are most uniquely special in our spirits. And, we are all in this together. We are here to support one another’s pilgrimage to Divine Consciousness. When will YOU realize that your greatest wealth is in your connection with the Divine and all other souls? When will you know or remember your true power in spirit? Consciousness includes learning that our flaws and insecurities are the challenges we are here to learn from and accept.

As you can assume from this blog, my personal pursuit is to better understand and control my “Judgements” especially of people I perceive as pursuing the passion of wealth hoarding and the gathering of material possessions. For me, caring about our fellow souls and protecting our miraculous planet hold more importance, and respect, than gathering material trappings of wealth. You may share this lesson or feel that your path is in conflict with mine. Hopefully, we will still find ways to love and support each other’s spiritual development.

YOU are so much more than your human existence. The perfection of your soul underlies the dramas and judgements we tend to engage… At the end of this incarnation, we will both be basking in the love and light of the Higher Realms…

I ask you to consider rebuking “Fear” as your motivation and consider Love and Acceptance as your foundational core for finding your motivation in your current incarnation. Yup, try it on! Along the way, release your self-victim status and honor the true power of your perfect soul and spirit! And, Wake Up to your true self and full consciousness beyond our human dramas and self-limitations.

You are a Miracle! You are Loved for who you are. No one can do YOU better than you and you serve a purpose as you travel the path toward higher consciousness…

Write Your Story!

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Your story is important to you and to the “witnesses” you share your story with. Do not quit reading because you do not write. “Write” suggests that you spend time considering your life’s experiences and find some way to communicate these learnings. Whether through written words, or verbal story-telling, or expression through creative arts, or by simply “acting out your role” as the character you came into this incarnation to portray in the Great Play called life. Yup, you are a character in a play which inter-connects you with all other living things.

Recapitulation of your life’s experiences can assist you move forward on YOUR path toward Enlightenment! Yes, you review the learnings you are consciously aware AND you look for the learnings which have travelled below the level of consciousness. Share your stories! You learn by sharing! You gain perspective and you can get feedback as other pilgrims respond to your story.

Recapitulation can mean “searching for your “essential Knowledge.”” In a spiritual frame of reference, “essential Knowledge,” may include learning or remembering your connection to your “source” which is the Divine Spirit. Your job is to find out who you really are as a soul or spirit engaged in learning lessons which will create awareness and lead you to a higher level of living in an “enlightened state of consciousness.” What could this possibly mean? It might mean that you achieve a state of consciousness where you spend more of your life knowing you are connected to all other living things and assisting any, and every, soul you bump into to achieve a higher state of their spiritual development. (We are all in this together!)

As you remember and communicate your story, you can relive these moments. Seeing these experiences through a new, updated filter, you can gain insight. Often you will consider an entirely different message, and learning, from a long held but overlooked, past experience. As an example, I have retold my story many times of the insight at the age of 23 years old, when I experienced a meditation where I saw myself sitting with my back to a tree by the “River of Life” like I pictured Buddha would have done. The life changing moment, and epiphany for me, allowed me to see, to know, or to remember as Buddha would have known, what the “connection to all other living things” might be like! At the time, I could imagine that I could be like Buddha and could only imagine what Buddha might have thought. NOW, in a recent recapitulation, I have come believe that I WAS the Buddha, or a few of my atoms were the Buddha, or perhaps my Divine Spirit was in the Buddha, and so I shared this experience with this higher level of enlightenment. Wow, I am not saying I am as good as the Buddha or a Master as he has been for so many people. I am simply saying that I can resonate with this higher level of consciousness because I have this somewhere deep inside myself, JUST AS YOU DO!

Of course, this does make me more responsible for accepting my Divine Self and this creates a higher level of personal responsibility to live more impeccably as a role model of the living human incarnation of the Divine! Yikes, I have to be more careful and responsible… Or, at least more ready to live in Joy and Wisdom. Every interaction and every sharing of my story now requires that I remember that my “witness” was guided to me to hear this story as a lesson for us to share! (I had better connect more deeply with the beautiful and also perfect soul in front of me so my story meets the deepest requirement for the consciousness which we share…)

So consider your story and retell these rememberings in a way which YOU can learn a great deal as you find the words or creative expression to review this experience. Write YOUR Story with both you and your witness’s consciousness in mind…

If you are READY and looking for a supportive community where you can share your story and grow spiritually in a non-religious environment, consider Masters of the Journey. You are a Blessing. You are a Master.

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